


Screensaver

by hypnoshatesme



Series: A Distorted (Work)Life [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, Other, but mostly dialogue tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26717800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypnoshatesme/pseuds/hypnoshatesme
Summary: Martin didn't think much about leaving his laptop unsupervised in his office. He certainly didn't expect it to become the resident monster's focus of attention.
Relationships: Gerard Keay/Michael | The Distortion
Series: A Distorted (Work)Life [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944406
Comments: 6
Kudos: 87





	Screensaver

**Author's Note:**

> *merrily procrastinates working on actual wips writing this instead*

Martin hadn’t left for long, only to get himself some tea and bring Jon some, too. Maybe five minutes. He had not expected to come back to his desk to find it occupied. Certainly not by Michael, staring, unblinking - though Martin wasn’t sure in that moment, whether he had ever seen it blink - at his laptop screen. That in itself would have been enough, but its face was doing...something. Martin wasn’t exactly sure how he knew it was unblinking when he couldn’t even distinguish any eyes in the flowing colours and patterns that had taken over its face. They moved like wisps of smoke or water, melting together and apart, smooth and hypnotising. 

They weren’t quite contained by the shape Michael usually held, and Martin wasn’t even sure what about the floating colours had made him think of Michael first and foremost, but the certainty that that was what it was was as real as Martin’s headache as he kept staring at it in a mixture of confusion and fear. Something about it was familiar in a way Martin couldn’t quite put his finger on. The closer he got to realising what it was, the more his mind slid off it, headache making him dizzy the more he tried. He lowered his eyes, finally, looking at the mug he was holding in a white-knuckled grip. He breathed - had he been holding his breath? - and he felt like his mind was a little less hazy now, just clear enough for him to remember he should leave and get the only person that seemed to know how to deal with it. It took another moment before Martin managed to step outside the room.

Gerry seemed unconcerned when Martin tried to explain what he had walked into, so Martin tried to calm down, too, as they walked towards his office.

"Did you try talking to it?" Gerry asked.

"Uh, no, it didn't occur to me?” Martin rubbed the back of his head, eyebrows drawn together as he tried to remember what he had seen. “I, uh...I also think its ears are gone?"

Gerry nodded as they walked through the door. He froze as he saw Michael, but only for a moment, only until his mind caught up - as much as it ever did - with what was in front of him. He walked towards the gently shifting mess of colours. "Ah...what's on the screen?"

"I mean I was gone for a while, it probably started the screensaver?"

Gerry raised an eyebrow. "Screensaver?"

Indeed, when he finally managed to catch a glimpse of the screen around Michael he saw equally shifting colours on it. A lot less headache-inducing, but similar enough.

Martin shrugged. "Yes, it's...it gives a retro-feeling that fits this place?"

Gerry nodded, absentmindedly. "Well, that explains it. Michael can get quite taken by screens when something interesting is happening in them."

"That's...it being...taken with something?" Martin frowned at its dissolving shape.

His frown only deepened when Gerry poked the melting colours only to pull part of it along as he pulled away, like it was sticking to his skin. Gerry shrugged as he watched the colours dissolve from his fingers. 

"It depends. When my TV malfunctioned and only showed everything in distorted pinks and greens it simply took it into the hallways."

"I need my laptop!"

Gerry looked at him with a grin. "Good that it isn't taking it, then." 

They were silent for a moment and Martin felt like the conversation was over, but he hadn’t really gotten a way to resolve this problem, so he asked, "Uh...what do we...do?"

"Oh you just wait it out." He shrugged, walking back towards Martin. "This is good isn't it? Wasn't Jon complaining about it getting him stuck in the office earlier?"

"Yes, this morning every door from his office led back into his office....he was quite angry by the time I saw him in the breakroom."

"Sounds like him.” Gerry snickered and nodded towards Michael, his grin going a little soft at the edges. “And like Michael, for that matter."

"I need my laptop for work…" Martin mumbled, looking back at his laptop.

"It won’t let you. You can use mine, it's set up and everything.” He gave Martin a reassuring smile. “I was going to do some filing anyways, sorting through the boxes Jon left for us to figure out."

"Oh...okay.” Martin returned the smile. “Thank you. And...uh, can I work at your desk? I'm...not sure I can focus...here."

"Sure, we'll just switch. I don't need much focus for that dreadful work." 

Gerry thought he might even appreciate having to concentrate more on what he wanted to do. Filing always made his mind scream he was bored. Trying to do so with Michael dissolving and undulating next to him might at least shut that down.

He came back a couple minutes later after accompanying Martin to his desk and getting the boxes he had promised Jon to sort through today. Michael was still in the same state, just going through a bit more of a pinkish-purple phase compared to the greens and yellows that had been predominant when Gerry left a moment before. He set the boxes down on the table and gave Michael a smile.

"Sometimes I really wonder how you survived more colourful decades, Michael." He mumbled, pressing a kiss to what might generously be called its head at this point. It stuck to his lips as he pulled away, a more liquid version of the usual tingling sensation that tended to linger after he kissed it. Gerry sat down next to it. "Though I guess you weren't like this in the 80s, huh."

He emptied the first box of files and went to work. Michael was loud, its presence heavier than its surroundings, making it difficult to not let eyes and thoughts wander towards it only for them to scatter and fall away at its incomprehensible state. Gerry probably had more practice working with it around than most and it was still a lot, today, but he appreciated it as he started his repetitive task. 

He barely noticed at first when Michael’s hand came to rest on his on the table, its weight barely there as wisps of colour dripped onto the back of Gerry’s hand. That he noticed and he glanced up from the file he was reading - should he be reading them? Probably not. But Gerry could rarely resist. Michael hadn’t moved except its hand was where it hadn’t been before. Maybe it had been there all the time. Gerry knew better than to believe that.

"I'm afraid I need both hands for work," he chuckled.

Michael didn’t react, of course, but its hand melted further, through Gerry’s hand and the desk. It came to rest on Gerry’s thigh, and he could feel it threading its fingers through the rips in his jeans as it always liked to do. It felt a lot more flowy today, though.

"That I can work with." Gerry gave a short grin before going back to work.

*

It was getting late and Martin was wondering if he had to leave his laptop at the Institute. It wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, per se, but he did feel somewhat uneasy leaving it with Michael. Even the normal lights in the archive sometimes seemed bothered by it, and Martin wasn’t sure what prolonged exposure to it would do to his laptop. He sighed, and knocked on the door, opening it when he heard Gerry telling him to do so from the inside.

"I’m sorry, are you done?"

The room felt less...dense than it had when Martin had left it at around lunchtime. A quick glance to the desk made it clear why. Michael was back to its usual vaguely human shape, though the way it was pressed into Gerry’s side, slotting into him like a jigsaw piece, looked very much unhuman. It didn’t look up from where its eyes were focused on Gerry’s arm as it traced it with sharp-looking fingers. Gerry didn’t look up, either, at first, looking at the same spot, shoulders relaxed. 

Martin still didn’t understand how he managed to look so at ease with it right there. He wondered if Jon ever looked this at ease around anyone.

“Hm?” Gerry looked up, a lazy smile on his lips. “Yes, I am. Did Jon ask about the boxes?”

“Uh, no, I just...thought...I’d check on my laptop.”

Gerry nodded towards it. “Ready to go. I wanted to tell you when Michael was done but it decided to use me as a cushion instead.”

Michael mumbled something, but Martin couldn’t catch it, maybe it wasn’t even words. Gerry shifted his head to answer in an equally unintelligible tone, nose casually brushing against Michael’s cheek. 

Martin felt like he might be blushing and quickly moved to grab his laptop, mumbling, “Oh, no, it...it’s fine.” Neither of them seemed to hear him. They sometimes seemed to be in some kind of comfortable bubble where nothing around them really seemed to get to them, both looking at each other incredibly soft - as far as applicable to Michael. The others - and Martin, too - had yet to figure out how much of those instances were natural and how much of it was Michael simply making everything around them dissolve into something unnoticeable. 

One way or another, Martin felt like he was intruding, so he quickly left the room with a mumbled ‘thanks’.

**Author's Note:**

> the only reason I didn't finish this the day I started is was because I got very distracted watching retro screensaver videos on youtube.  
> In a very mundane way, though. I am unfortunately bound to my default human shape.


End file.
